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I've got an old book on wine and mead making. It states in a lot of it's recipes to use the yeast rehydration method and spread it on a piece of toast. Then float the toast with the yeast side down in the must solution before sealing.

What does this do?

Gonzo
 
Makes a mess of your must. Just rehydrate the yeast per the manufacturer's instructions and pitch it into your must. No muss no fuss.

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
I'm sure you can, but, if you don't have the proper capper you won't get a consistant seal from what I've read. Charlie Papazian addresses the twist off issue in his second book somewhere if I remember right. Bottom line, I have a bench capper that is designed for standard crown top type beer bottles so I'll stick with the design target demographic.

I'm sure there are people who have capped a standard bottle cap on a twist off type bottle. If it were a good way, economic way, or more effective way to cap and seal, we'd see the LHBS selling twist top bottles and caps and there would be a lot of information available on doing it. I haven't seen that to be true.

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
I'm afraid some of my make shift brewing buckets lids are not sealing. I'm useing mayonase buckets brutaly cleaned. The lids have a strip of rubber for a seal. Like a bead of glue. Not sure what to do. I'm trying to get my hands on some 3 gal plastic carboys but it isn't easy.
 
Sorry for the redundant retarded questions, I see that you all are egar to anwser them.
I've found that the buckets are sealing. Bubbleing nicely, except for my 2 gal. batch. I've learned that there is no alternative to the 2nd fermentation vessel being glass. Due to the oxidation hazard.

Thanks for the vanilla connection, the stuff is really good.

gonzo
 
Gonzo,

It's not that the PET type carboys are impossible to use, and may in fact work fine with some of the "quick" meads such as Joe's Ancient Orange and Spice mead.

Check around, and you may be very surprised to dig up a home wine making or beer making supplier around you.

Carboys aren't really all that terribly expensive, but having one shipped will of course significantly increase the cost.

I found my local supplier when they were selling some overstock 3 gal carboys on Ebay. I found out they were local and it was the beginning of a really great relationship.

Good luck and don't be afraid to keep the questions rolling. There's a ton of info already here and the search function will help sift through it all.
 
Hey Gonzo, there are no retarded questions, though some of us manage to give some retarded answers. *looks in mirror* Keep the questions coming. There are many people who lurk on this board. They don't necessarily ask questions themselves but learn just as much by reading the threads.
 
ok guysn'gals

I got a batch of beer here and a batch of mead that are apparently stinkin' up the house, from what the wife says. If I move it to my garage the temps at night are getting down to about the high 20's. Is this bad? Daytime highs are in the mid 50's but the garage is probably high 40's. Probably not a good idea huh?

My 3rd batch of mead was made on Valentines day. 3gal.batch with 8#honey with Blueberrys, Pineapple, oranges and 2 beans of vanilla. SG of 1.19 and Lavlin -71 b1122. Bubbled on the 3rd day, shook it for a week. Now she's at about 2 bubbles a minute. Not sure if I should let it set till the 28th. Or racker off the fruit.

Thanks!!!
Gonzo
 
Gonzo,

Keep the fermentors in the house and find a closet or cupboard. The swing in temperature won't be complimentary to your mead or beer.

Sounds like the fruit was added to the primary in your third batch. I doubt that your SG reading is accurate because of all the chunks floating around. Just measuring the liquid is not accurate in this case, at least that has been my experience. Between the pineapple and the oranges your pH may trend toward the acidic side which could slow fermentation, stress the yeast, and produce off flavors/odors.

You need to post your exact recipe for us to help.

Also, you really need to get a good book for reference's sake (Ken's Book is great for this) and read it. He covers a ton of stuff including many of the questions you're asking here. Spend some time looking at the other posts here, along with using the search tool and a lot of your questions will be answered as well.

We're here to help out where we can as a supplement to your growing experience and knowledge of mead making. Mead making is a learning processes, and as with most other learning processes it is incumbent upon the student to do the learning in the lecture, lab and books. This forum is the lecture, the lab is your meadmaking space in your home. Now it's time to hit the books.

Keep asking questions, we'll be here.

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
If his SG is anywhere near correct, he's probably having the same problem I had (only using K1V-1116). I was informed that I'd have MUCH more luck if I kept the SG at 1.14 or less (1.12 or less is even better). You can up the sugar content as you go.

For instance, if you are making a show mead (nothing but good ole honey, water, and yeast), and you add enough honey to get you to 1.19, it'll take *forever* to do much of anything. If you add half that amount of honey to get to 1.10 (or thereabouts) and let it get going good, you can add the rest when it gets down around 1.02 (1.11 after addition) and let it finish.

If I had to guess, I'd say that 1.19 in conjunction with 71B will leave you with a cloyingly sweet drink. Perhaps I'm wrong on that.
 
Yup, you're right Aggie.

I started out thinking about the SG, but then changed direction. I'll call it a senior moment! LOL

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
Well hell,
Like I said
3gal.batch with
8#honey
2#Blueberrys
1#Pineapple
1 orange peeled and sliced
2 beans of vanilla.
SG of 1.19 and Lavlin -71 b1122.

What can be done to alter the batch?

Sometimes I don't have time to do a lot of searching, I have learned a lot by the poking around that I have done. No better way to learn that by making mistakes I guess. Gonna suck bad if this batch goes bunk.
 
Rehydrate and pitch a package of K1V-1116 or EC-1118 yeast (I'd use the K1V just because I like the end product it generally yields) or you can add some water to bring down the SG. Either way this is a case where researching your yeasties ability to metabolyze high gravity must would have paid off.

You might also consider a teaspoon of nutrient and energizer mixed in before you re-pitch as it will help the beasties to take off. Also you might want to leave the airlock off for 48 - 72 hours and stir it up a couple of times a day for the first two days to add some oxygen to keep your yeasties in a feeding frenzy.

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
Add a tsp of nutrient to your must. You may still want to consider diluting it down a bit to lower the SG. Rehydrate your yeast per manufacturer's instructions, and pitch it.

Also you should check the temperature of your must before you pitch. The cooler it is, the longer it will take for the yeast to get really active.

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
I don't see any reason to rack it unless you're also planning on diluting it considerably. If it were me, I'd probably rack it in half and fill the remaining space (double the volume) with water. I'd probably repitch the 71B in that instance. IF you decide it's necessary to up the alkie content later, you can add some more honey water & or fruit. Even if you cut the SG this way, you'll still end up with a fairly potent drink. If I followed this option, I'd rack/split/fill, ferment as usual, and rack onto blueberries when I went to secondary. Using 71B, I'd imagine that a good deal of your fruity character would manage to survive the dilution process, but adding a little extra, depending on taste at racking time, probably wouldn't hurt.
 
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